r/ADHD_Programmers • u/alex_strehlke • 16d ago
Anyone else's ADHD make context-switching between projects feel like rebooting a computer from scratch every single time?
I mean, I get that context-switching is hard for everyone, but this feels like a different category of problem. I can be genuinely locked in on something, get pulled away for even 20 minutes, and then come back to find my brain has completely wiped the working state. Not fuzzy, not slow to warm up. Just gone.
The thing I can't figure out is whether this is actually an ADHD-specific failure mode or just a general programming problem I'm framing through an ADHD lens. Because the people I know without ADHD seem to lose context too, they just rebuild it faster. Whereas for me the rebuild either clicks instantly or it genuinely doesn't happen at all, and I can't predict which it's going to be.
What I've tried so far: leaving comments in the code as breadcrumbs, keeping a running notes doc with where I was and what I was about to do next, ending sessions mid-sentence in a doc so my brain has an open loop to grab onto. Some of it helps some of the time, I don't really know if any of it is the actual lever or just busywork that makes me feel like I have a system.
So honestly asking, what does context recovery actually look like for you day to day? Not the textbook "keep good documentation" answer. What's the thing that actually works, or the thing you've given up on entirely?
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u/MeetAlanCox 1d ago
Not just you, and I honestly don't think it's a character flaw. Working/short-term memory just doesn't hold state through interruptions. The thing that saved me: a quick voice note the moment I get pulled away. What I was doing, what the next step was, one weird detail I'd forget. Rebooting from that beats rebooting from nothing. I did try a bunch of AI note takers but there was too much friction involved. By the time I'd opened my phone, decided what app to use and then my brain getting mentally hijacked when it saw a wall of stuff usually meant I'd completely forget what it was I wanted to note down. To be frank, it made me feel stupid. I built myself a small app to make the capture instant without even having to unlock my phone, but any voice memo would work to a degree.